At the only SAILING Champions League Qualifier this year, the 25 sailing clubs from 14 European nations presented sailing at its best for four days in the city center of Kiel. After a total of 50 races sailed in the matched fleet of J/70s, the winner was Regattaclub Oberhofen, a talented youth team from Switzerland. Two German clubs followed—in second place the Flensburger Segel-Club and the Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee in third place. The best 15 clubs qualify for the final of SAILING Champions League from 7th to 10th October 2021 in Porto Cervo. For many clubs, it was the first regatta this year, so the stormy conditions of up to 36 knots on Thursday demanded everything from the sailors right on day one. With consistently good sailing conditions throughout the event, the clubs presented sailing par excellence for the spectators in Kiel. The races of the so-called “Final Four,” the best four clubs, decided which clubs made it onto the podium. After 48 qualifying races, 16 for each club, the clubs in places 1 to 4 fought for the overall victory. Flensburger Segel-Club from Germany entered the final series as the leader of the qualification series with already one race win and needed one more victory to win the regatta. In the end, the Swiss were the luckiest and had the stronger nerves. The youth team from Regattaclub Oberhofen with five sailors aged 17 to 20 won the first final race and secured the overall victory in the SAILING Champions League Qualifier by winning the second race, pushing three German clubs to second to fourth place. “We are very happy about winning and being able to represent our club like this. We didn’t have any tactics in mind for the final races. After the first race win, we just wanted to keep calm; thank goodness that worked out. We would like to thank our club for trusting us and giving us the opportunity to compete against the ‘big guys’ here in Kiel,” said helmsman Nick Zeltner, who competed with Nilo Schaerer, Cedric Schenk, Laurent Stadler and Nicolas Wyss. The city of Kiel hosted the SAILING Champions League Qualifier together with TSV Schilksee and Segel-Club Baltic. The 15 qualified clubs for the SAILING Champions League Final in Porto Cervo:
• Regattaclub Oberhofen, Switzerland
• Flensburger Segel-Club- Germany
• Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee- Germany
• ONEKiel- Germany
• Bandholm Sejlklub- Denmark
• Calipso- Russia
• Wassersport-Verein Hemelingen- Germany
• Åländska Segelsällskapet- Finland
• Yacht Club Gdansk- Poland
• Brändö Seglare- Finland
• WSV Almere Centraal- Netherlands
• Kieler Yacht-Club- Germany
• Burgenländischer Yachtclub- Austria
• BI Athletics Seiling- Norway
• Halmstad Segelsällskap- Sweden
For more SAILING Champions League information, visit https://sailing-championsleague.com/events/kiel-germany-2021/.